Distilled for top off but tap for water change

[Blenny]

My tap water reads 0 phosphate and nitrate but my tank reads 0.3 and. 20 so I see no problem using my treated tap water for wc for now. Also no chloramines in my tw.

I like how easy to prepare large quantity of sw straight from the tap. Even instant Ocean reef crystals suggest tap water is ok.

Top off is another matter. Anything that is not consumed by life stock or filtration will accumulate in the tank over the years. So using the purest water makes sense.

I have access to 3.00$ for 5 gallons distilled water near by. I can go there every week fill up my top off jug.

I think I will try that routine for the next few months.

Anybody doing this?

 

[forzaazzurri]

RO DI for everything. I tried shortcuts when I first started and should of listened to all the experts here from the get go.

After a year an RO DI system will pay for itself.

 

[TheTodd]

One of the problems with tap water is that it can contain things that most kits don't test for. If you test the TDS (Total Disolved Solids), they will be much, much higher than RO or RODI water. Those can cause problems over time.

If you are going to use tap for water changes, then what is the benefit to using better water for top-offs? I would go the other way if I had to. At least the big water changes are putting in good water.

 

[Blenny]

Once I get to very low levels nitrate and phosphate I will need to invest in a RO/DI unit or pay more in distilled water.

For the time being I am confident that I replace my aquarium water with cleaner water.

As far as topoffs, I see the only replacement to evaporated water is distilled or 0 tds water, otherwise any unused thing will concentrate overtime.

 

[JW20VT]

Pretty funny my last 3 replies within 2 days have been about distilled water... Anyways , i used treated tap water when i originally started because i had no ro/di local and never found a good source for distilled. I treated and went ahead with using treated tap. Month or so into my tank being setup i was out doing weekly shopping and stumbled upon distilled at target for .86/gallon since then i stock weekly for top offs and have done a couple partial changes and recently my big change after my cycle was done.

I have a 29g so its not a huge hit on the wallet but i will prob eventually get a ro/di unit but wouldnt be for awhile its been working out good with distilled so far

 

[bribo12]

I used tap when I started and it led to a Cyanobacteria and bryopsis outbreak. Then switched to ro and my algae problem became much easier to deal with and finally beat. If I had kept on tap I would probably still be fighting algae. I'd go distilled for water changes and tap for top off if you have to.

 

[Blenny]

Why would you go tap for top off and distilled for wc and not the other way around?

 

[bribo12]

You're replacing a lot more water with a water change IMO and would lead to less nutrients from the tap. Some people make tap work though but I wouldn't keep at it in the long run.

 

[carey]

Its worth the investment without a doubt. I wouldnt add the high tds tap water to a system at all, not top offs or water changes. Doing one and not the other is just silly, it makes no sense. If you go to the trouble of adding ro.di water for one thing and then add tap water for the other you are wasting your money on the ro/di water.
You can get a cheap ro/di unit for about $90 on ebay that is portable and a great starter solution, I myself went that route until i was certain I was going to stay in the hobby, then invested in a $180 unit.
There really is no way to get around it, tap water in the long run is just not good. If you are doing corals at all then its needed, if its fish only, well, some people dont care about the total dissolved solids they are introducing to the tank as its only fish. lol But if the end goal is to have coral then really really consider not using tap water.

 

[Blenny]

I do about 5 gallon per week wc and top off 3-5 gallons weekly, so about the same.

The way I see it is that anything that you add with your top off might concentrate in the long run. For water change its a 1 to 1 exchange. As long as your change water is cleaner you end up ahead in term of water quality IMO.

Also a lot of stuff can get added to the tank anyway, food, kalk, carbon dosing etc. Although high purity all this stuff can add ppb of nasty metals and contaminants. So using tap that contains no or very few nitrate, phosphate or silicates for wc is a not too bad IMO.

Of course using DI or distilled for everything is a sure bet, no arguing there. I'll get there If I get into corals that need 0 ppm nitrates and phosphates.

 

[carey]

I see where you are coming from, but in reality tap is adding stuff to the water without a doubt. You are not adding cleaner water than is in the tank. get a tds meter from ebay for under 10 bucks and then go from there if you dont believe me. lol

My tap has no nitrates, trace phosphates and reads 140tds. thats 140 of "stuff" that is in the water. I go through the ro/di unit and it has zero nitrates, phosphates and more importantly, ZERO tds. So therefore, I am adding higher quality water than I am removing.
I dont add any chemicals usually unless really needed and feeding will add things regardless of the water source. I know youre trying to angle this so tap is ok, if thats all you can do fine, I understand, but in reality it is not as clean as you think. The water company adds all sorts of stuff to tap water, chemicals and flouride and other stuff.
If you are on well water then you risk heavy metals and other organic things.

 

[Blenny]

I'm only suggesting tap might be ok for water changes. For top off this is a big no.

My question is what is the tds of the SW once you add the salt? And what is the tds of your tank before the wc?

I will certainly get a tds meter to measure that. But once you mix salt I think the measurement is screwed because of all the ions. From what i red its a measurement of electrical resistance of the water. What do you think?

Thanks for all the comments. I'm just putting an idea on the table.

 

[carey]

I confused my tds meter when attempting to read saltwater, freshly made. It has so many elements in the salt mix that your corals consume that it will skewer the results, for sure.
The difference between the high tds of salt mix and tap is the actual dissolved solids, in salt mix these are purposely added and needed by critters in your tank, tap has other additives that are not good for the critters. Good and bad tds I guess is the simple answer. lol

 

[bribo12]

I'm only suggesting tap might be ok for water changes. For top off this is a big no.

My question is what is the tds of the SW once you add the salt? And what is the tds of your tank before the wc?

I will certainly get a tds meter to measure that. But once you mix salt I think the measurement is screwed because of all the ions. From what i red its a measurement of electrical resistance of the water. What do you think?

Thanks for all the comments. I'm just putting an idea on the table.

I don't understand why it is a big no for top off but not water changes...that just doesn't make sense to me. You measure Tds before you mix the salt and you want it to be 0 so you're not putting anything odd into your tank. Salt mixes are made with the correct compounds to match ocean water and give corals the things they need. It may contain minor extras but the ions in that are what you want.

 

[Blenny]

For the same reason you don't top off with salt water. It will concentrate anything that is in the water over time.

 

[carey]

actually, you dont top off with saltwater cause it will raise the salinity.

 

[bribo12]

No you don't too off with saltwater because salt doesn't evaporate...if you did you would just continue to raise your sg. I'm sure the distilled you use to top off still has a bunch of crud in it. This is kinda pointless arguing because we can't test for exactly what te dissolved solids are. I top my tank off with saltwater if my sg is low, am I concentrating dangerous chemicals? IMO no, people with very heavy sps systems dose kalk and those systems don't crash down the line due to too much calcium or alkalinity. I guess I just don't see your side of the argument. It just doesn't make sense to me especially since I used to use tap and distilled and had problems with both.

 

[Blenny]

Distilled or RO/DI is the closest we can get to pure water.

You are right that we don't know all that's in the tap water tds. That is exactly my point. I don't want these unknown potential contaminants to concentrate in my tank because they will not evaporate.

Regarding kalk, it will for sure not crash for Calcium or Alkanity, I was referring to contaminants that are present in lime at ppb levels. You are right that using high quality additives and salt mix makes this a non issue in most applications.

I don't want to argue just want to explain my pov.

 

[bribo12]

Distilled or RO/DI is the closest we can get to pure water.

You are right that we don't know all that's in the tap water tds. That is exactly my point. I don't want these unknown potential contaminants to concentrate in my tank because they will not evaporate.

Regarding kalk, it will for sure not crash for Calcium or Alkanity, I was referring to contaminants that are present in lime at ppb levels. You are right that using high quality additives and salt mix makes this a non issue in most applications.

I don't want to argue just want to explain my pov.

Haha I do understand and yes using ro/di is the purest we can get.

 

[mwilliams]

I used both distilled and water from one of the water machines inside krogers. With my kroger card I got the distilled for $.77 a gallon. Then after hurting my back I bought an RO/DI unit since I can't lift those buckets like I use to. But I would quite using tap water.